In The Game: ‘Donkey Kong Country,’ ‘Goetia’ Reviewed

There’s been some catch-up going on in our house with our Nintendo Switch reviews. I’ve got two games to talk about in this instalment of In The Game, and they really couldn’t be more different from one another.

First up, let’s talk about the recently released Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, which is a port from the 2014 Wii U game. As I’ve mentioned in previous editions of In The Game, the Princess and I had no experience playing the Wii U, which allows us to come into the suped-up Switch titles without any bias whatsoever. That doesn’t mean I haven’t experienced Donkey Kong games before – I was around playing the original on the Coleco back in the day, and I’ve certainly been away of the subsequent iterations of the franchise over the years. However, Tropical Freeze feels new and fresh to me.

The game is a 2D platform scroller that allows you to play as either the classic monkey the game is titles after, or as Funky Kong, who is, as described, a somewhat funkier take on the titular ape. As either character, you’re travelling across a land and map to various islands to ultimately battle it out with the ice cold Snowmads. Truthfully though, the story isn’t such a big selling point in this game – instead, it’s the game play itself – jumping, swimming, swinging and taking out the various baddies that get in your way during each level. In that regard, Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze is a good looking yet fairly standard addition to the platform scroller world.

The control scheme is reasonably simple to pick up on for an experienced gamer, though it must be said that the Princess did get a little frustrated starting out as she tried to figure out what buttons did what. While I thought she’d be right into Tropical Freeze, the game didn’t engage her as much as other Nintendo Switch games like Super Mario Odyssey and Kirby All Stars – it was a little too challenging for her.

However, I find myself continually coming back to play because of the challenge. Granted, you earn a lot of lives as you play through each level, which is a good thing since I was definitely dying a lot as the game progresses. The Princess might have to play as Funky Kong from the beginning next time to ease her into the world of Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze, but veterans will have no trouble and a lot of fun returning to Kong’s world.

Sadly, the same can’t be said for Goetia, a new point and click game I’ve been trying to get into for the last couple weeks. In Goetia, you play as the ghost of Abigail Blackwood, who is combing her ancestral home in the 1940s, looking for answers to her death and and the downfall of Blackwood Manor. I wish I could say something good about the game, but apart from looking very nice, the gameplay and the story is far from enticing. As a ghost, you can pick up various objects which is not nearly as cool as you’d hope for. There are so many of these sorts of games out there, that there’s got to be something special to keep gamers going. Sadly, Goetia simply doesn’t posses anything unique or exciting.

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Published by Andy Burns

Andy Burns is the Interactive Content Editor for SiriusXM Canada, and has been the Editor-In-Chief of the pop culture website Biff Bam Pop! since its inception in 2008.
Andy's book, Wrapped In Plastic: Twin Peaks, was published in 2015 by ECW Press. His next book, on Stephen King's The Stand, will be published by Cemetery Dance in 2018.
View all posts by Andy Burns